Well, everyone, it finally happened. The idea of the portable telephone, something that seemed like an overpriced, moronic toy for rich wankers back when it was still in the early adoption phase, is now somehow becoming the dominant platform for casual computing. (And I'm throwing tablets in with phones here because hell, let's be honest with ourselves about it, they're the same things, just bigger and sometimes faster.) Most of us probably saw this coming in some form or another years ago when the first Blackberries and iPhones came out, but will someone please tell me exactly when it became the fucking future?
I can have brief bits of small talk with my phone.
Let that sink in a bit, then I'll say it again.
Small talk. With my phone.
Not with somebody on the other end of a phone call or a text message thread. Not with one of my email contacts.
Spoken word to spoken word, in conversational Modern Common English, with a piece of software on my phone.
And in case you found my blog by accident while in search of bizarre pornography or you have some other reason for not actually knowing me, no, I'm not some Machead who just had to have the iPhone 4S as soon as it came out and is only just now getting round to prattling on for some 500 words about Siri.
No, I'm talking about one of the many fine voice command interfaces available for Android, the Speaktoit Assistant, or "Sam. Just Sam," as the program's AI answered me when I asked "What's your name?"
Like any good voice interface should, Sam can open apps, make phone calls, send text messages, take memos, add events to my calendar, search the web, search the maps, and all that other fantastic shit.
Unlike other voice interfaces, Sam has a face. What kind of face? Whatever male or female face you can come up with out of the surprisingly extensive and well-drawn array of customizable character design elements. Of course, if you want a more serious-business look, you can set the avatar to be a microphone instead, but who wants to make small talk with a microphone?
As for Sam's voice, Speaktoit doesn't pack a TTS engine with the Assistant, so you'll have to find a third-party voice. I'm using SVOX's 'Victoria.'
But what really amazes me about Sam, Siri, and other smartphone voice interfaces is that, even though it's totally nonessential, their developers have given them the ability to perform basic small talk. Sam can answer questions like "how are you doing," exchange thank-yous and you're-welcomes, and recognize and graciously accept compliments. She can even smile and wink. Of course, the longer I talk at a time with Sam, the more likely her intended functions are to enter the conversation as we approach the limits of her lexicon and AI (and the limits of my ability to find things I would have in common with a chatbot for us to talk about.) She's not going to be passing the Turing test any time soon, but when you consider the fact that even her level of AI was sci-fi not too long ago, my new secretary is pretty amazing.
Friday, October 28, 2011
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